Kinnison's students excel in China

2008-10-07

Wofford College has developed a tradition of sending some of America’s brightest young minds overseas to experience other cultures and expand their horizons. That tradition is exemplified by some of Professor Li Qing Kinnison’s students, who have recently been published in a journal produced by Beijing University in China.

“This is one of the top two universities of China,” says a proud Kinnison. “Each of them wrote about their impressions of the places they visited in China.”

The four students are Paul Wood (Chinese & Computer Science major, 2008), Corey Gibson (Biology major, Chinese minor, 2008), Jeff Gurganus (Chinese major, 2009) and Jeremy Peters (2010). Wood and Gibson, now graduates, were among the first Wofford students to go to China.

Wood wrote about an elementary school and kindergarten he visited in China where children learned both Chinese and English. He is back in China now.

Gibson talked about his visit to an animal preservation farm, and how unhappy the animals looked without enough room to roam or food to eat.

Peters has learned Chinese, French, Spanish and is currently studying Russian. He wrote about what he ate along his journey, as well as seeing Beijing Man, which is considered one of the oldest human skulls ever found.

Gurganus, meanwhile, impressed with his knowledge of the Chinese language.

“Jeff’s writing is much more complicated,” says Kinnison. “It’s very impressive that all four of these non-Chinese speakers can write Chinese so well. I’m very pleased to see all four of my students writing, and I think they have pushed themselves really hard. There are many foreign students at Beijing University, and not all of their writings were selected.”